Reuters reports:

U.S. media coverage of last year’s election was three times more likely to be negative toward President Bush than Democratic challenger John Kerry, according to a study released Monday.

Apparently, people aren’t surprised:

“It may be that the expectations of the press have sunk enough that they will not sink much further. People are not dismayed by disappointments in the press. They expect them,” the authors of the report said.

Is public disenchantment with the establishment media working to the advantage of online outlets? Could be:

The study noted a huge rise in audiences for Internet news, particularly for bloggers whose readers jumped by 58 percent in six months to 32 million people.

That could also simply be the result of more and more people coming online. Still, when there are so many alternatives available, it doesn’t help to have dissatisfied customers.